McCoy

(S04E06) After last week's episode -- a tour de force by Zach Gilford as Matt -- this show felt almost like a transition. The stories are in motion, the characters are in flux, and change is coming. It's inevitable given the relationships and the ages of most of the cast, so it would be disingenuous to be surprised by what's happening.

There were two songs that informed the major changes, Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" and Patsy Cline's "Crazy." More on the tunes and the trials, not to mention that thirteen on eleven drill that's got the East Dillon Lions starting to roar on the field. Not winning the game, but at least winning respect. For more on all this stuff, follow me.

(S04E03) There's so much that's right about Friday Night Lights this new season that it probably sounds like I'm overdoing it with the positive notices. However, the way they've shaken up Eric and Tami's life together in Dillon has been terrific.

The gerrymandering for the town, sending Eric to coach a poor school with a tattered football squad is inspired storytelling. And Tami's not in a better place back at West Dillon because she sent Luke Cafferty to East Dillon, the school he was supposed to be attending. The Boosters are not happy with Tami. Eric's not sleeping. What's going to happen now?

Frankly, I don't think any of them look like the originals. John Cho has a longer face than George Takei. Simon Pegg looks like a smaller guy (at least they didn't immediately give him the mustache that James Doohan later grew). It's tough to tell with Karl Urban because of the angle of his profile, but he looks nowhere near as ornery as Deforest Kelley. Anton Yelchin has a much stronger jaw than Walter Koenig.

Do you think people would watch a movie in which they basically use only the names and don't really try to duplicate the looks of the original actors? I suppose this won't bother a new generation of Trek fans who don't know the original cast anyway. What do you think?

Christie's auction house wrapped up the first auction of official Star Trek memorabilia on Saturday. To say it was a success would be a huge understatement. Almost all of the items sold for more than their pre-sale estimates, and the final take of $7,107,040 was more than double what was expected.

Models and miniatures were the big winners. A model of the Enterprise that was used in the Next Generation series and the Generations movie went for an astounding $576,000. It was estimated to sell for $15,000 to $25,000. Eight other items in the models and miniatures category also managed to sell for more than $100,000. The top costume was a space suit worn by Dr. McCoy in the original series episode "The Tholian Web", going for $144,000.

The History Channel streamed the auction live on their website, but if you missed it, they also filmed everything for a future documentary. You can find more info about other items that sold in the Washington Post article.

(S06E01) Family Guy is back, and it's like they never left. That could just be because of my penchant for watching adult swim every night before bed though. Anyway... the episode kicks off with a newscast. We find out that Quahog is suffering from a flu epidemic. After cutting to Trisha, who is puking in the toilet, they send it back to Robin Hood, Boy Wonder. And that kicks off our theme for the night, a series of retro gags. Robin arrives on the scene where a group of girls in a car are teetering on the edge of a cliff. Upon seeing Robin come to their rescue, they're unimpressed. There is a no cell service joke about him being useless, but I thought it would have been funnier if he kicked them over the edge.